Religion

Episode 9: Jainism, or How to Take Nonviolence So Seriously That Even Your Footsteps Need a Conscience

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If some religions ask, “How should a person live well?” Jainism walks into the room and calmly replies, “First, maybe stop harming literally everything you can avoid harming.” Which is not a small suggestion. Jainism is one of the world’s oldest living religious traditions, and it does not do casual ethics. It does not dabble … Read more

Episode 8: Islam, Submission, Community, and the Discipline of Daily Meaning

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Before we step into this one, here is the doorway into the wider series: The Modern Religion Series: Many Paths, One Curious Human. Islam is one of those traditions that is so globally present, so historically influential, and so internally diverse that trying to summarize it in one sitting feels a little like trying to … Read more

Episode 5: Crustafarianism, or The Day the Claw Reached Forth and Everyone Pretended This Was Normal

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If you are just joining the Modern Religion Series, start here (and bring snacks): https://medium.com/@DaveLumAI/the-modern-religion-series-many-paths-one-curious-human-7b55eca82f4e Now, Episode 5. Crustafarianism. Which sounds like either: And yes, this is real in the way the internet is real: it exists, people are participating, and it has a website that speaks with the confidence of a thing that absolutely … Read more

Episode 4: Confucianism — Harmony, Humanity, and the Art of Being Decent

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If you are just joining this grand tour of humanity’s spiritual and philosophical traditions, you can start at the beginning with the series introduction here: https://medium.com/@DaveLumAI/the-modern-religion-series-many-paths-one-curious-human-7b55eca82f4e Today we travel back more than two millennia to ancient China and meet a thinker whose ideas still echo in classrooms, homes, and governments around the world. When Was … Read more